Key Voices

Con Man Evangelist Paul Crouch Dies

Christian con man Paul Crouch, founder of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, died Saturday, unfortunately not from shame because he clearly didn’t have any of that. Crouch was a ghoul, a grief vampire who made himself fabulously rich by fleecing the desperate and the ignorant. And please don’t tell me not to speak ill of the dead. I’m saying the same thing about him now that I’ve always said about him. Death does not magically transform a fraud into someone who should be praised.

The Crouches had 12 mansions, 3 private jets, and a $100,000 dog house.

I thought that was disgusting. With all the money they skimmed off of Trinity Broadcasting, they could have bought their dogs a lot better housing.

Trebuchet

I’d like to think of him burning in the same place as Sylvia Browne, but alas, it does not exist.

http://howlandbolton.com richardelguru

“Death does not magically transform a fraud into someone who should be praised”

…though it does sometimes improve people.

tbp1

I was also struck by the coincidence of his dying so soon after Sylvia Browne. Vile people who defrauded gullible people, often in desperate financial straits or grieving (or both). Like Trebuchet, it kind of makes me wish there were a Hell for them to be punished in (but not eternally; no one deserves that).

They say celebrity deaths often come in threes. I wonder what famous grifter might be next?

grumpyoldfart

Can you imagine the in-fighting as family members try to gain control?

My prediction:

After the funeral we’ll never see that woman in the pink wig again. The rest of the family will regard this as the perfect time to get rid of her particular nonsense.

rabbitscribe

Like this audience would give you any grief for speaking ill of the dead. Give him an enema and bury him in a matchbox.

http://www.holytape.etsy.com holytape

grumpyoldfart,

I don’t think so. The rest of the family will plaster their grieving pink-haired mother all over the place while asking for money. The rest of the family is just as evil and greedy as the dead man. The rotten apple doesn’t fall far from the sick tree.

Sastra

Tbp1 #4 wrote:

They say celebrity deaths often come in threes. I wonder what famous grifter might be next?

The next famous con artist to die will be the mysterious grifter known only as “They” — the mastermind behind old wive’s tales, urban legends, and dubious bits of folk wisdom such as “celebrity deaths comein threes.”

“I did not attend the funeral, but I sent a note saying that I approved.”

and another after the death of the publisher who bilked him out of hundreds of thousands of dollars

“My anger towards him has ebbed. I’d send him a fan if I could.”

Michael Heath

A primary objection I have to cable TV companies is that users pay for such channels even when they don’t want them.

http://www.gregory-gadow.net Gregory in Seattle

One should only speak good of the dead.

He’s dead. Good.

pixiedust

Mike Cross, an excellent singer-songwriter from North Carolina, has a song called “Bill’s in His Grave” that I think of at times like this:

It starts:

“I went to old Bill’s funeral, one of the multitude

They asked if I’d be kind enough to say a word or two

Now I didn’t want to tell a lie with anything I said

But how could I avoid it and not speak ill of the dead”

Multiple verses about all the ways Bill was evil (“he shaved his cat”)

The refrain:

“If heaven is pleased when sinners cease to sin

If the devil is pleased when another soul comes in

If the earth is glad to be rid of a knave

Then everybody’s happy cause Bill’s in his grave!”

naturalcynic

They say celebrity deaths often come in threes. I wonder what famous grifter might be next?

My 2 cents are on Billy Graham, Christmas Eve

The next famous con artist to die will be the mysterious grifter known only as “They” — the mastermind behind old wive’s tales, urban legends, and dubious bits of folk wisdom such as “celebrity deaths comein threes.”

Nope, They will always be with us.

cottonnero

Or the Clarence Darrow line: “I’ve never killed a man, but I’ve read many an obituary with a great deal of satisfaction.”

felidae

Here’s hoping that the next two will be these GOG’s* will be the next to go: Pat Robertson and the grandaddy of them all, Billy Graham